I
realise that, with all my bluff optimism, I have been affected by the
lockdown! In the poem that I wrote
yesterday (smrnewpoems.blogspot.com) I actually questioned, even if rhetorically,
the value of sunbathing!
It is shocking to have to confront a
possible breakdown in your worldview that can contemplate something as
self-loathing as a negative approach to the appreciation of the nearest
star! It is certainly a wake up call to
reassess my attitude and determine to be more positive in the future. The idea of getting to June and July and
behaving like a troglodyte is entirely unacceptable.
If something as fundamental to my view of
life is capable of mutability, then it makes me wonder what other, more subtle
changes there have been in this period of self-isolation. It would argue a self-deluding insensitivity
to say that one can remain entirely stable when the world appears to be changing
around you.
The irony, of course, is that the micro
world of self-isolation is unchanging and stable. The continuing horrific catalogue of death
and infection is all around us, but not part of the life that we are
leading. It is as if we are living in
some sort of medieval fort with a water filled trench around us: part of our
surroundings, but separated from them.
Unlike some others, I have been entirely
unable to wean myself from the news. My
addiction to the Internet radio, and more specifically Radio 4 is total. It is at times like this that the
Conservatives detestation of the BBC becomes not only partisan, but also
self-defeating. At times of National
Crisis we united around the BBC as a voice of and to the Nation. I certainly do not look towards the
Conservatives and their slavish news lap dogs to give me a sense of what the
Nation is thinking or feeling.
And The Guardian. As a life-long Guardian reader (with a brief
fall from grace and adherence to The Independent) I now read it on my mobile
phone with an intensity that goes beyond belief. And may I make a specific call out for the
writing of John Crace, a columnist of rare wit and perception. His political sketches have been part of the
reason that I have been able to maintain my sweetness and equilibrium during
the past few years where Brexit and the bloody Conservatives have convinced me
that I am living in a society where the dominant ideology is the death-wish!
My
early morning routine is now becoming more and more established: set Moppy
(don’t blame me, the app demands that you call your robot cleaner something)
off on her hoovering circuit; make my cup of tea (English breakfast and Earl
Grey) and have the World’s Most Expensive Augmented Muesli (at least I have
stopped adding Smarties to it) with fat-free milk; do the Guardian Quick
Crossword (with light cheating); change Moppy to her mopping sequence; go for
my pool circuits. And a chunk of the day
is gone! Which is a clear
exemplification of the work expanding to match the time available!
I do miss my daily early morning swim and
I can’t wait to get back to that part of my routine, because that morning start
include my first writing of the day when I sit in the café or outside having my
post-swim cup of tea. Ah! How life used to be!
Just
back from the open kitchen window where at 8.00 pm our time, we applaud the
front-line workers who are keeping our society going.
Talking of health workers and their battle
against the virus: the British Prime Minister now in Intensive Care. As I said yesterday, I wish him better health
and strength to his family – and he should resign. Now.
At once.
The Prime Minister’s bravado a while ago
where he was joking about his meeting Covid-19 positive people and shaking
hands with them; his visible inability to maintain social distancing when his
government was promoting it as essential, now appear to be a foolhardy, self-indulgent
imposition on health services that are overstretched.
I might also add, that the Prime Minister’s
inability to give clear indications of who actually has ultimate power in
government is a dereliction of duty.
chocolate, retribution, judgement, ineptitude, Throughout his career he has been first and foremost a second-rate,
shoddy, narcissistic, journalistic liar and, while I have sympathy for his
present state of health, I have none for his political. We deserve better than him. Though with the cabinet of freaks that he has
accumulated, god alone knows who (or in the case of Gove, what) might take his
place.
So far the Conservatives’ management of
the Covid-19 crisis has been fatally inept.
How many unnecessary deaths is it going to take before the people of
Britain demand the reckoning that should come sooner rather than later?
Determined
not to end this post on a sour note, I can report that we were able to buy
chocolate in the last shop and you can be assured that my writing has been
sweetened by the confectionary.
So just imagine what it would have been
like without!
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